This disclosure is related to navigating based on media density along possible routes.
Mobile devices (also referred to as user equipment (UEs)) are typically capable of determining their position within a certain degree of accuracy. When available, UEs generally rely on global positioning system (GPS) signals to determine their position. A UE may also execute a navigation application that guides a user from an origin location to a destination location. Such a UE is typically a mobile device, such as a cell phone, a smart phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a tablet computer, an automotive navigation system, or the like. The origin location may be the current location of the UE or another identified location. The navigation application uses the continuously determined position of the UE and a map of the area comprising the origin location and the destination location to provide the user with turn-by-turn directions to the destination location. The UE may display the entire route or just the area immediately around the UE's position.
Conventional navigation applications typically include a point of interest (POI) database. While travelling along the route, the user can be presented with POIs immediately adjacent to the route. These POIs are typically presented as icons representing the category of POI, such as food, gas, hotel, attraction, and the like. However, there may be many more POIs near the route that are not displayed because they are not adjacent to the route or do not fit into any of the predefined categories. A user may have no way of knowing about these other POIs along the route. Further, the POIs that are displayed are typically not distinguished from each other according to popularity.